(James, Esq.) was born in the parish of Kinguife, and county of Inverness, in the year 1738. His father was a farmer of no great affluence; and young Macpherson received the earlier part of his education in one of the parish schools in the district called Badenoch. By an anonymous writer in the Edinburgh Magazine, he is said to have been educated in the grammar school of Inverness; and he may, for ought that we know to the contrary, have spent a year in that seminary; but we rather think that he went directly from a country school to the university of Aberdeen. At this our readers need not be surprised; for at the period to which we refer, some of the parochial schoolmasters in Scotland, and more especially in the Highlands, were men eminent for taste and classical literature.

It was in the end of October or the 1st of November 1752, that James Macpherson entered the King's College; where he displayed more genius than learning, entertaining the society of which he was a member, and even diverting the younger part of it from their studies, by his humorous and doggerel rhimes. About two years after his admission into the university, the King's College added two months to the length of its annual session or term; which induced Macpherson, with many other young men, to remove to the Marischal College, where the session continued short; and it is this circumstance which leads us to suppose that his father was not opulent.

Soon after he left college, and perhaps before he left it, he was schoolmaster of Ruthven, or River, of Badenoch; and we believe he afterwards delighted as little as his great antagonist Johnson in the recollection of that period when he was compelled, by the narrowness of his fortune, to teach boys in an obscure school. It was during this period, we think in 1758, that he published The Highlander, an heroic poem in six cantos, 12mo. Of this work, as we have never seen it, we can say nothing. By the anonymous writer already quoted, it is mentioned as a "tissue of fustian and absurdity;" whilst others, and they too men of learning and character, have assured us, that it indicated considerable genius in so young an author.

Soon after this publication, Mr Macpherson quitted his school, and was received by Mr Graham of Balgowan into his family as tutor to his sons; an employment of which he was not fond, and to which he was not long condemned. In the year 1760 he surprized the world by the publication of Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse Language, 8vo. These Macpherson fragments, which were declared to be genuine remains of ancient Scottish poetry, at their first appearance delighted every reader; and some very good judges, and amongst the rest Mr Gray, were extremely warm in their praises. Macpherson had intended to bury them in a Scotch magazine, but was prevented from so injudicious a step by the advice of a friend. He published them therefore in a pamphlet by themselves, and thus laid the foundation of his future fortune.

As other specimens were said to be recoverable, a subscription was set on foot by the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, to enable our author to quit the family of Balgowan, perambulate the Highlands, and secure, if he could, the precious treasure. He engaged in the undertaking, and was successful; for all who possessed any of the long famed works, vied with each other in giving or sending them to a man who had shewn himself capable of doing them justice.

With his collection of poems, and fragments of poems, he went to London; and tagging them together in the form which he thought best, he published, in 1762, Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem, in six books, together with several other poems, composed by Oflan the son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic language, 4to. The subject of this epic poem is an invasion of Ireland by Swaran king of Lochlin. Cuchullin, general of the Irish tribes during the minority of Cormac king of Ireland, upon intelligence of the invasion, assembled his forces near Tara, a castle on the coast of Ulster. The poem opens with the landing of Swaran; councils are held, battles fought, and Cuchullin is at last totally defeated. In the mean time, Fingal, king of the Highlands of Scotland, whose aid had been solicited before the enemy landed, arrived, and expelled them from the country. This war, which continued but five days and as many nights, is, including the episodes, the story of the Poem. The scene, the heath of Lena, near a mountain called Crombeach in Ulster. This poem also was received with equal applause as the preceding Fragments.

The next year he produced Temora, an ancient epic poem, in eight books; together with several other poems composed by Oflan son of Fingal, 4to, which, though well received, found the public somewhat less disposed to bestow the same measure of applause. Those poems had been examined by Dr Blair and others, and their authenticity asserted, there were not wanting some of equal reputation for critical abilities, who either doubted or declared their disbelief of the genuineness of them. That any man should suppose Macpherson, after his translation of Homer, the author of the poems which he ascribes to Ossian, appears to us very extraordinary; and it is little less extraordinary, that any one should, for a moment, believe in the existence of manuscripts of these poems of very high antiquity. Part of them he undoubtedly received in manuscript from Macdonald of Clanranald; but we can affirm, on the best authority, that the said manuscript was written at different times by the Macvirichs, hereditary bards to that family. He may likewise have received short manuscripts elsewhere; but every Highland gentleman of learning and of candour (and none else have a right to decide on this question), declares, that by much the greater part of the poems had been preserved in fragments and popular songs from a very remote age by oral tradition. To these fragments Macpherson and his associates (A) gave form; and it was by uniting together fragments of different ages, that he inadvertently furnished Gibbon and others with the opportunity of objecting, that the poems are sometimes inconsistent with the truth of history. This, however, is no solid objection to their authenticity; for every West Highlander sixty years of age remembers to have heard, in his youth, great part of those poems repeated by old men; and is confident that, many centuries ago, the names of Fionn MacKail (Fingal), and of Ossian's other heroes and heroines, were as familiar to a Highland ear, as the names of Agamemnon, Hector, Helen, &c., were to a Grecian ear at the time when the poems of Homer were reduced into their present form. For the substance of the poems, this is such evidence as none will reject who does not prefer his own cobweb theories to the united testimony of a whole people.

With respect to authenticity, the poems of Ossian have indeed been compared with the poems of Rowley; but the comparison is absurd. The poems of the Celtic bard were not found in an old chest, and presented to a people who had never before heard either of them or of their author; they were the popular songs and traditions of ages collected together, and reduced into form, with additions occasionally made by the translator. It is ridiculous to ask how these songs and stories could be so long preserved among a rude and illiterate people; for it is only among such a people, whose objects of pursuit are too few to occupy all their attention, that the exploits of their ancestors can be handed down by tradition; and the most serious objection which we have ever met with to the translator's account of the origin of the poems, arises from his having pretended that he received the greater part of them in old manuscripts.

After the publication of Ossian's poems, by which we have reason to believe that he gained twelve hundred pounds, Mr Macpherson was called to an employment which withdrew him, for some time, both from the muses and from his country. Captain Johnstone was Macpherson appointed governor of Pensacola, and Mr Macpherson accompanied him as his secretary, being at the same time made surveyor-general of the Floridas. If our memory does not deceive us, some difference arose between the principal and his dependant, and they parted before their return to England. Having contributed his aid to the settlement of the civil government of that colony, he visited several of the West India islands, and some of the provinces of North America, and returned to England in the year 1766, where he retained for life his salary as surveyor, which we believe was L.200 a-year.

He soon returned to his studies, and in 1771 produced An Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, &c.; a work which he says, "without any of the ordinary incitements to literary labour, he was induced to proceed in by the sole motive of private amusement." The subject of this performance, it might reasonably be supposed, would not excite any violent controversial acrimony; yet neither it nor its author could escape from several most gross and bitter invectives, for some of which he perhaps gave too great occasion.

His next performance produced him neither reputation nor profit. In 1773 he published, The Iliad of Homer, translated in two volumes; a work fraught with vanity and self-conceit, and which met with the most mortifying reception from the public. It was condemned by the critics, ridiculed by the wits, and neglected by the world. Some of his friends, and particularly Sir John Elliott, endeavoured to rescue it from contempt, and force it into notice. Their success was not equal to their efforts.

About this time seems to be the period of Mr Macpherson's literary mortifications. In 1773 Dr Johnson and Mr Boswell made the tour to the Hebrides; and in the course of it, the former took some pains to examine into the proofs of the authenticity of Ossian. The result of his inquiries he gave to the public in 1775, in his narrative of the tour; and his opinion was unfavourable. "I believe they (i.e. the poems, says he), never existed in any other form than that which we have seen. The editor or author never could have the original; nor can it be shown by any other. To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence, is a degree of infatuation with which the world is not yet acquainted; and flibbertigibbet is the last refuge of guilt. It would be easy to show it if he had it. But whence could it be had? It is too long to be remembered, and the language had formerly nothing written. He has doubtless inserted names that circulate in popular stories, and may have translated some wandering ballads, if any can be found; and the names and some of the images being recollected, make an inaccurate auditor imagine that he has formerly heard the whole."

Again, he says, "I have yet supposed no imposture but in the publisher; yet I am far from certainty, that some translations have not been lately made, that may

(A) We have been assured that he had associates; and that for the description of Cuchullin's chariot in particular he was indebted to Mr Macpherson of Struanachie; a man of native genius, and though not possessed of very extensive erudition, well acquainted with Gaelic poetry. Credulity on the one part is a strong temptation to deceit on the other, especially to deceit of which no personal injury is the consequence, and which flatters the author with his own ingenuity. The Scots have something to plead for their easy reception of an improbable fiction: they are seduced by their fondness for their supposed ancestors. Neither ought the English to be much influenced by Scotch authority; for of the past and present state of the whole Eric nation, the Lowlanders are at least as ignorant as ourselves. To be ignorant is painful; but it is dangerous to quiet our uneasiness by the delusive opiate of half persuasion.

These reasonings, if reasonings they can be called, might have been easily answered, had not Macpherson pretended to the possession of at least one manuscript which certainly never existed. He did not, however, attempt to answer them; but adopted a mode of proceeding which tended only to convince the world that Johnson's opinion had some foundation, and that the editor of Offan had more imagination than sound judgment. Prompted by his evil genius, he sent a menacing letter to his illustrious antagonist, which produced the following brief but spirited reply:

"Mr James Macpherson. No date. I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence that shall be offered to me, I will do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me; for I will not be hindered from exposing what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian. What! Would you have me retract? I thought your work an imposition: I think so still; and, for my opinion, I have given reasons, which I dare you to refute. Your abilities, since your former, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morality, inclines me to believe rather what you shall prove than what you shall say."

Whether this letter shewed to Macpherson the imprudence of his conduct, or that he had been made sensible of his folly by the interposition of friends, we know not; but certain it is, we hear no more afterwards of this ridiculous affair, except that our author is supposed to have assisted Mr Macnicol in an answer to Dr Johnson's Tour, printed in 1779. This supposition we are inclined to consider as well-founded, because we have been told by a gentleman of veracity, that Mr Macnicol affirms, that the scurrility of his book, which constitutes a great part of it, was inserted, unknown to him, after the manuscript was sent for publication to London.

In 1775 Mr Macpherson published The History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover, in two volumes 4to; a work in our opinion of great merit, though by one party it has been industriously, and, we are sorry to add, too successfully, decried. As an historian, our author could not indeed boast the attic elegance of a Robertson, the splendour of a Gibbon, or the philosophical profundity of a Hume; but his style, though it has sometimes been the avowed, was not the real cause of the coldness with which his history was received. The writer of this sketch once saw a gentleman of rank, and of the Whig interest, turn over one of Macpherson's volumes, and heard him say, upon quitting the book, "I cannot bear that Macpherson work." He was asked if he thought the narrative false? and he replied, "No! it is too true; but I cannot bear it, because it gives me a bad opinion of those great men to whom I have been accustomed to look back with reverence as to the favours of my country."

That it has been abhorred by others on the same account, we have not a doubt; and yet language has no name too contemptuous for those who will not follow truth whithersoever she may lead them; or who, on the absurd pretence of having already made up their minds, will not study the evidence on both sides of a disputed question in our national history. A man needs not surely disapprove of the Revolution, or of the subsequent settlements, though he should find complete proofs that Danby and Sunderland were crooked politicians, that Marlborough was ungrateful, or even that King William himself was not that upright and disinterested character which from their infancy they have been taught to believe. It is no uncommon thing for Divine Providence to accomplish good ends by wicked instruments. Every Protestant surely considers the Reformation as one of the most blest events that have taken place in the world since the first preaching of the gospel of Christ; yet he would be a hardy champion who should undertake to vindicate the motives which influenced the conduct of the first reformers—of Henry VIII. for instance, or even of Luther himself. And why may not the Revolution be considered as in the highest degree beneficial to the country, though the conduct of some of those who brought it about should be found to be such as Macpherson represents it?

That author certainly acted with great fairness; as together with the history he published the proofs upon which his facts were founded, in two quarto volumes, intitled, Original Papers, containing the secret History of Great Britain, from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover; to which are prefixed, Extracts from the Life of James II., as written by himself. These papers were chiefly collected by Mr Carte, but are not all of equal authority. They, however, clear up many obscurities, and set the characters of many persons in past times in a different light from that in which they have been usually viewed. On this account we have no hesitation to say, that he who is capable of sacrificing prejudice to truth, and wishes to understand the politics of the reigns of James, and William, and Anne, should study with care the volumes of Macpherson.

Soon after this period, the tide of fortune flowed very rapidly in Mr Macpherson's favour, and his talents and industry were amply sufficient to avail himself of every favourable circumstance which arose. The resistance of the Colonies called for the aid of a ready writer to combat the arguments of the Americans, and to give force to the reasons which influenced the conduct of government, and he was selected for the purpose. Among other things (of which we should be glad to receive a more particular account), he wrote a pamphlet, which was circulated with much industry, intitled, The Rights of Great Britain affected against the Claims of the Colonies; being an Answer to the Declaration of the General Congress, 8vo, 1776, and of which many editions were published. He also was the author of A short History of Opposition during the last Session of Parliament. Magnetism

In natural philosophy.—Our intention in the present article was principally to give a more distinct account of the theory of Mr. Aepinus than is contained in the article Magnetism of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, referring for proof and illustration to the many facts contained in that article; but, on more mature consideration, we concluded, that this method would fret and confuse the reader by continual references, and leave but a feeble impression at last. We have therefore preferred the putting the whole into the form of a short treatise on magnetism, similar to our supplementary article of Electricity. This, we hope, will be more perspicuous and satisfactory; still leaving to the reader the full use of all the information contained in the article Magnetism of the Dictionary.

The knowledge which the ancient naturalists possessed of this subject was extremely imperfect, and affords, we think, the strongest proof of their ignorance of the true method of philosophizing; for there can hardly be named any object of physical research that is more curious in itself, or more likely to engage attention, than the apparent life and activity of a piece of rude unorganized matter. This had attracted notice in very early times; for Thales attributed the characteristic phenomenon, the attraction of a piece of iron, to the agency of a mind or soul residing in the magnet. Philosophers, as they were called, seem to have been contented with this lazy notice of a flighty suggestion, unbecoming an inquirer, and rather such as might be expected from the most incurious peasant. Even Aristotle, the most zealous and the most systematic student of Nature of whose labours we have any account, has collected no information that is of any importance. We know that the general imperfection of ancient physics has been ascribed to the little importance that was attached to the knowledge of the material world by the philosophers of Greece and Rome, who thought human nature, the active pursuits of men, and the science of public affairs, the only objects deserving their attention. Most of the great philosophers of antiquity were also great actors on the stage of human life, and despised acquisitions which did not tend to accomplish them for this dignified employment; but they have not given this reason themselves, though none was more likely to be uppermost in their mind. Socrates disdained from the study of material nature, not because it was unworthy of the attention of his pupils, but because it was too difficult, and that certainty was not attainable in it. Nothing can more distinctly prove their ignorance of what is really attainable in science, namely, the knowledge of the laws of nature, and their ignorance of the only method of acquiring this knowledge, viz. observation and experiment. They had entertained the hopes of discovering the causes of things, and had formed their philosophical language, and their mode of research, in conformity with this hopeless project. Making little advances in the discovery of the causes of the phenomena of material nature, they deserted this study for the study of the conduct of man; not because the discovery of causes was more easy and frequent here, but because the study itself was more immediately interesting, and because anything like superior knowledge in it puts the possessor in the desirable situation of an adviser, a man of superior wisdom; and as this study was closely connected with morals, because the fear of God is truly the beginning of wisdom, the character of the philosopher acquired an eminence and dignity which was highly flattering to human vanity. Their procedure in the moral and intellectual sciences is strongly marked with the same ignorance of the true method of philo-